Across

adv. and prep.; also aphetically cross. [A prep.¹ in + CROSS. Cf. Fr. encroix, whence Caxton’s in cross, perh. the earliest form.]

  A.  adv.

  1.  In the form of a cross, crosswise, crossing each other, crossed.

1480.  Caxton, Chron. Eng., cxciv. 170. Syr hugh spencer … fell doune vpon the grounde by the see bank acros with his armes and thryes kist the grounde. Ibid. (1485), Chas. the Gt., 239. He layed hys armes vpon hys body in maner of a crosse. Ibid., 240. He fonde Rolland expyred, hys hondes in crosse vpon hys vysage.

1590.  Webbe, Trauailes (1868), 25. Two kniues are layde acrosse vpon the loafe.

1646.  H. Lawrence, Com. & Warre w. Angels, 117. Thinke not to goe to heaven with your armes acrosse.

1771.  Foot, Penseroso, III. 120. Yonder, tow’rds the east A warrior frowns in stone, his legs across.

1826.  Wordsworth, Poems on Affec., xi. Wks. 1849, I. 152. Pine not like them with arms across.

  2.  In a position or direction crossing the length-line of anything, transversely; hence, from side to side, or corner to corner, through.

1523.  Fitzherbert, Husb. (1534), F 5. The whiche blyster must be slytte with a knyfe a-crosse.

1601.  Shaks., Twel. N., V. i. 178. H’as broke my head a-crosse, and has giuen Sir Toby a bloody Coxcombe too.

1774.  Phil. Trans., LXIV. 355. I found it impossible to saw it directly a-cross.

1850.  Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., ix. 71. I jumped right on to the ice, and how I got across I don’t know.

Mod.  Was the Channel rough when you came across?

  b.  Naut.

1633.  Stafford, Pac. Hib., viii. (1821), 325. And ride with their yards a crosse.

1794.  Nelson, in Nicolas’s Disp. & Lett. (1845), I. 504. [Ships] of the Line, sails bent, some with top-gallant yards across.

  3.  In a position actually or potentially the result of crossing anything; on the other side.

1816.  Scott, Old Mort., 146. Lord Evandale … was no sooner across than he was charged by the left body of the enemy’s cavalry.

Mod.  At this rate we shall soon be across.

  † 4.  Not straight or directly; obliquely, athwart, awry, amiss. Obs.

1559.  Mirr. for Mag., 344 (T.). When king and queen saw things thus go across, To quiet all, a parliament they called.

1615.  Bp. Hall, Contempl., III. vii. 64. The squint-eyed pharisees looke a-crosse at all the actions of Christ.

1687.  R. Lestrange, Answ. Dissenter, 8. This Gentleman will needs set them on a-Cross, and then Exclayme against them as [the most Contrary Things in the World].

  B.  prep. [The adv. with obj. expressed.]

  1.  Direction: In a direction forming a cross with, or transverse to; a. at right angles with.

1634.  Brereton, Trav. (1844), 45. A long table … placed lengthways in an aisle which stands over across the church.

1697.  Potter, Antiq. Greece, I. viii. (1715), 42. A Partition … reaching quite cross the Theater.

1742.  Young, Night Th., IV. 721. Faith builds a bridge across the gulph of death.

1816.  J. Wilson, City of Plague, I. i. 77. How idly hangs that arch magnificent, Across the idle river.

1830.  Tennyson, Lady Clara Vere, 31. But there was that across his throat Which you had hardly cared to see.

1860.  Tyndall, Glaciers, I. § 12, 88. A line set across the fissured portion [of the ice].

  b.  at any angle with; sideways or obliquely against. To come across: to come upon or meet obliquely, indirectly, or unintentionally.

1626.  Bacon, Sylva, III. § 223. (1631), 62. The Harpe hath the Concave, not along the Strings, but acrosse the Strings.

1747.  Collins, The Passions (1830), 61. When Cheerfulness, a nymph of healthiest hue, Her bow across her shoulder flung.

1816.  J. Wilson, City of Plague, II. ii. 211. Across our gracious lady’s bed A blast hath come as from the grave.

1860.  Dickens, Uncom. Trav. vii. (1866), 49/2. A wind very like the March east wind of England, blew across me.

1876.  Freeman, Norm. Conq., III. xii. 191. We come across more than one incidental mention of those wars.

Mod.  I ran across him in the City yesterday.

  2.  Motion: From side to side of; quite through, over, in any direction except lengthwise. Across the country: straight through between two points, without regard to the regular roads; not along the regular roads.

1591.  Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., IV. i. 114. I charge thee waft me safely crosse the Channell. Ibid. (1611), Wint. T. IV. iv. 15. When my good Falcon made her flight a-crosse Thy Fathers ground.

1728.  Thomson, Spring, 439. You, now retiring, following now Across the stream, exhaust his idle rage.

1784.  Cowper, Task, VI. 275. Pushing iv’ry balls Across a velvet level.

1832.  Tennyson, Miller’s Dau., 32. After dinner talk Across the walnuts and the wine.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 573. He was directed to hasten thither across the country.

1866.  Geo. Eliot, Felix Holt, xlvi. 402. A sort of gleam seemed to shoot across his face.

1866.  J. Martineau, Ess., I. 372. A footman will run your errand across the town.

1876.  G. O. Trevelyan, Life & Lett. Macaulay, II. i. 16. All its associations and its traditions swept at once across his memory.

1879.  Tennyson, Lover’s T., 9. Permit me, friend, I prythee To pass my hand across my brows.

  3.  Position: On the other side of, beyond, over.

c. 1750.  Jacobite Toast, ‘The King across the water!’

1855.  Tennyson, Daisy, 92. To lands of summer across the sea.

Mod.  The great republic across the Atlantic.